Forced to marry a disabled man in the countryside? I'll repay you tenfold!

Normally, by now the night would be deep and the bed would be rocking. But today, Zhou Yanshen simply couldn't muster the energy; he was utterly miserable.

Su Wanqing didn't have as many worries as him, and fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. Zhou Yanshen tidied himself up, washed and hung up their clothes, and put their luggage away neatly before getting into bed.

……

The next morning, Su Wanqing was awakened by a rich fragrance.

She peered out the window—Uncle Ding was chopping chicken feed in the yard, finely chopping vegetable leaves and mixing them with wheat bran, which the chicks eagerly devoured. There was no one else in the yard.

She slowly got dressed, washed up with the water Zhou Yanshen had prepared in advance, and then opened the door.

The dining table in the outer room was laden with food: fried meatballs, stir-fried radish with pork cracklings, cold eggplant salad, eggplant and cabbage soup, and cold noodles with scallion oil as the main dish, along with the pickled vegetables and sauerkraut she had left behind. It was a whole table full of food.

Su Wanqing opened her mouth, a question slowly popping into her mind—when did breakfast at home become so luxurious?

Zhou's mother walked out sleepily, while Uncle Ding looked rather grim, staring towards the kitchen. Zhou Yanshen sat upright in his chair with a stern face, his aura heavy with tension.

Gu Yuan came out of the kitchen carrying the last stir-fried vegetable dish, and naturally sat down next to Zhou's mother. He smiled and said, "Gui Xiang said you guys are used to eating well in the morning, usually six or seven dishes. I just made a little something with what we had at home. If it's not enough, I'll make more next time."

They acted like they were already a family.

Although he was badly beaten last night, with bruises all over his face, he protected it so that there was no sign of injury at the moment.

Uncle Ding's face darkened: "Didn't you go to sleep with Secretary Liu? Did you sneak out to my sister's house last night?"

Gu Yuan immediately replied, "No, I got up early this morning to come and cook for Gui Xiang."

Mother Zhou looked at the table full of dishes with delight, her eyes full of pride: "Gu Yuan is still the best to me. I love everything he cooks. You'll know how good he is after you eat here a few more times. Alright, brother, hurry up and eat."

Gu Yuan is gentle and considerate, can cook and do housework, can take care of her, is good-looking, and has good physical strength—Zhou's mother counted on her fingers and felt that Gu Yuan was simply perfect without any flaws.

Uncle Ding remained silent, burying his head in his food. Hmm, the food was indeed quite good, only slightly inferior to Wanqing's.

Su Wanqing also took a few bites and nodded secretly. She hadn't realized her father-in-law could do these things; wasn't he supposed to be a scholar?

Zhou Yanshen put down his chopsticks with a stern face: "Mother, now that you've decided to get married, it's not convenient for you to live here. You should move out in the future."

Zhou's mother nearly jumped up: "You're kicking me out? Where else can I live besides this brick house? Your Uncle Gu doesn't have anywhere to go either, we can't expect him to sleep in the cowshed with me, can we?"

Zhou Yanshen explained the arrangements he had made the night before: "It's too crowded for Uncle to sleep in the outer room. I plan to clean up the empty room next door for him to live in, and partition the outer room to use as a storage room and a dining room. I'll also apply to have a new brick house built for you next to the planting site so you can live separately, which will be considered as separating the family."

Upon hearing this, Zhou's mother's expression immediately brightened: "That's more like it! I didn't want to live too close to you either, this is fine. It's only a few dozen meters away, so it's convenient for us to come over for breakfast, lunch, and dinner; it's just a short walk."

She got more and more excited as she talked, "Oh right, make the house bigger for me, and build a small toilet next to it, otherwise it's too far to go to the public toilet. Also, the windows should face south, the kang (heated brick bed) should be warm, and it would be best to build a stove, so it'll be convenient to boil water and heat up vegetables in winter..."

There were more than a dozen requirements listed.

In Zhou's mother's mind, returning to the city was a long way off, so of course she had to build a nice house for them to live in for a long time.

Zhou Yanshen neither agreed nor disagreed, but simply said, "There are regulations on the size of the house, so we have to apply first." What he was thinking was that he would be returning to the city in a few months at most, so why build something so nice? As long as it was habitable, that would be fine. He hoped to finish it in three to five days.

No matter what, she was his mother after all. He felt very strange about the noise at night, especially since the other party was Gu Yuan, who was in his thirties. Therefore, he just wanted to keep some distance between them to avoid embarrassment.

Su Wanqing glanced sideways at Zhou's mother—this person was really oblivious; she couldn't even see how dark Zhou Yanshen's face was, and was still busy rambling on about herself.

Gu Yuan sat quietly to the side, occasionally picking up a piece of food, as if nothing was wrong.

Each person had their own thoughts during the meal.

After dinner, everyone went to their respective work. Gu Yuan scurried off to Liu Shuqing to handle the grain ration. This was no easy task; Liu Shuqing was only doing it because of Su Wanqing's influence, plus the 65th Regiment had a bumper harvest this year and had surplus grain in the warehouse. Otherwise… well, forget about it.

……

After finishing her meal, Su Wanqing headed to the planting site. Along the way, although everyone called her "Little Dr. Su," their eyes were quite strange, clearly indicating that everyone knew about her affair.

When I got back last night, Chen Xiuer's room next door was dark, so I guessed she went to bed early. As for why she went to bed so early... maybe she was too tired? She probably didn't know about the big gossip that happened last night.

She was right.

Upon arriving at the planting site, good heavens! Chen Xiuer carried her little girl on her back, carrying mushroom boxes out one trip after another; Guo Mingyuan pushed a cart back and forth, estimating that he would have to make more than a dozen trips to get the goods onto the bus by the highway; Aunt Wang used both hands as if they were four, quickly sorting auxiliary materials and filling mushroom boxes.

Old Shen squatted there, wishing he were fifty years younger, carefully placing the mycelium into the mushroom box, but his movements were clearly not keeping up.

Su Wanqing stood there for several minutes, but no one noticed her.

Old Shen was the first to look up and wipe his sweat. He spotted her immediately and shoved the mushroom tube into her arms, exclaiming, "Little Su! You're finally back! If you hadn't come back, these old bones of mine would have given up here!"

He plopped down on a small stool, panting heavily: "You need to hire two more people for this planting site! I, Shen Monong, a retired senior cadre, gave up my comfortable retirement to work like a slave for you for half a month! Just to see what your shiitake mushrooms and silver ear fungus look like, and now I've ruined myself!"

Su Wanqing quickly took the bacterial culture tube and got to work efficiently, joining them on the production line.

Aunt Wang and Chen Xiuer then noticed her return and excitedly exclaimed amidst their busy schedules, "Dr. Su, you're finally back! Let's chat after we're done!" They were clearly unaware of what had happened the night before.

While working, Su Wanqing asked, "Old Shen, why are you so busy?"

Old Shen snorted and said irritably, "Ask those two guys, Chen Xiuer and Guo Mingyuan! They're obsessed with money! Not only do they want to sell ordinary oyster mushroom cultivation boxes, but they also sell silver ear fungus spawn. They want to plant them all overnight and produce three thousand catties a day! This old man of mine is being dragged around by them from morning till night every day..."